How strange! Report from Spain of Great Crested Grebes catching and devouring Chiffchaffs

Great Crested Grebe on the prowl - though not, in this case, for Chiffchaffs

IT is difficult to think of any circumstances in which a waterbird, such as a Great Crested Grebe, might kill and eat a Chiffchaff or, indeed, any passerine. 

But Ornithomedia, the authoritative French language website for birders, has reported  a couple of such incidents - both last month on  the Las Cañas lagoon in Navarra, Spain.

It states: "While these passerines (known on the Continent as Swift Warblers) were hunting small insects on the surface of the water, the grebes approached discreetly, caught them with their beaks, drowned them and then swallowed them with difficulty. Two other capture attempts ended in failure."

The normal diet of Great Crested Grebes consists of small fish, larvae, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians and water vegetation, so these occurrences are remarkable though it should be noted that there is understood to be one British record of a grebe taking and devouring a Sand Martin.